Facilities

Honoring Aquatics Innovators: Training Lifeguards

In motivating 16- to 22-year-old guards at community pools, Pete DeQuincy is careful in how he frames their duties. “The biggest thing I think that I do is to have them understand the mission of the job,” says the aquatics supervisor at East Bay Regional Park District, based in Oakland, Calif. “They serve the public and the community.”

To help them best do that role — preventing drowning — DeQuincy conducts 5- to 30-second team drills in five-minute sessions to build muscle memory and keep their attention.

To that end, he’s putting together a library of drill videos, available on YouTube. By Memorial Day, he’s hoping to have 100 videos and curriculum outlines for training.